Calumet Natural Food Cooperative
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting Minutes
May 21, 2014 7:00-9:00 pm
Community Resource Center-147 West Lakeview Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43202
Attendance
Trustees in attendance: Connie Gadell-Newton (president), Marilyn Welker (vice- president) Chris Rapp
(treasurer), Carol Gilkey (secretary), Patricia Burke, Calvin Tribby.
Also in attendance: Trey Henthorn, Brad Bailee
Meeting was called to order at 7:00 by Connie.
Check-in was had.
Connie passed out the Agenda and it was approved. The April minutes were approved.
Minutes:
Committee Report:
Finance Committee- Chris reported that the co-op did not make money in April. There was a payout for
accumulated vacation and some departments went over budget. Trey is working with departments to
stop the over spending, using both punishments and incentives. Invoices are now being submitted
within 3 days. Peter is learning the job very well. There is $86,000 in reserves. There was a $17,000 loss
for April. Some of that reflects outstanding checks that were paid for an employee salary, but never
cashed. The new statements Peter is putting together have been very helpful. Chris wants to know
preLucky vs postLucky on a month to month basis. The supplements buyer misunderstood Trey’s
instructions to try to order some sale items from UNFI and she ordered a lot of items that were on sale,
even if department did not need them. Marilyn asked about consolidating departments and Trey
thought the baby department could consolidate with another department, possibly HABA. It was
discussed that the department heads need to be responsible for monitoring and tracking the items
purchased. Finally it was decided that profit margins needed to be reviewed to see if they could be the
same throughout departments and also if they need to be raised on some products.
GM Report:
Trey presented the GM report. Sales about 23% lower than last year. There was a big question on how
the plants were to be budgeted? They were included with the produce. Trey has sorted this out and
made an individual budget for plants. Produce sales was very low. Griffin, the new cashier has been
doing well so far and is being cross trained. Kat was the only floor lead that said she didn’t want him
until he was fully trained. Griffin is subbing for people after training and works one day a week one shift
with department heads. Produce is missing employees on week-ends and no one has been doing it
recently.
Trey has done employee reviews and gave a couple of people raises making some others mad. Trey
following union rules in giving raises.
The co-op is continuing to work on switching to KEMBA for banking needs. Money will be saved when
switching to Kemba-it costs $250/month for Huntington and nothing from KEMBA. The POS system
change to First Data is being worked on, it will cost $2000 to buy out the leases with the current POS
company. First Data will give a $400.00 credit to help with the cost.
New cameras have been installed to look at back. Nothing is missing so far. Inventory level in
backroom hasn’t changed much.
Keeping enough staffing is becoming a problem with employees taking vacation. Pam has verbally told
Trey she is leaving so he needs a fulltime HABBA person. The job has been posted, but Pam needs to put
in writing that she is leaving-Trey will get this done. Kat can do her job in 25 hours per week-the
remaining time is to use her for marketing and going to other departments and it is felt the new HABBA
person may be able to do the same. Trey wants to keep the HABBA at 40 hours a week position. Then
he can cross train the person for all 3 wellness departments.
A discussion for the need assistant manager took place. It is felt it is needed and Trey needs to work on
finding someone. It should be an hourly position.
Membership Committee Report:
The Membership Committee had a general meeting at Whetsone Recreation Center May 9. There was
not a high attendance which was disappointing but since the co-op is not in crisis mode it makes sense
at this point. Small group discussion at the meeting was had and there was debriefing afterwards-there
is a real appreciation for those that spoke. A one page summary of the meeting was posted on the
member forum and on the kiosk. Caroline is on top of the membership process. She is just spending 5
hours a week and it’s barely enough. Membership numbers are strong. The Co-op can use the new IPad
for people to renew. There needs to be the capacity on the website for renewing membership. The
proposed POS enables co-op to have a membership number for each person and can be set to
automatically show when a membership expires and how much the discount is.
Emily is encouraged about Voldgistics-a software program to track volunteer hours-she wants to see
things move more smoothly. It may be free-depending on number of members in database-and it may
do newsletters. Another general meeting is being planned, more food oriented and not just talk. A
question was asked about grants, it is very hard for a for profit corporation to get grants. Simply living
can apply for us then we can get grants-fiscal sponsor. A new mural was discussed, it is felt Karen set
aside $500 for one, Trey will check on the money.
Marketing, Outreach and Education Committee Report.
They are meeting tomorrow-Calvin, Pat, Natalie, Jan, Rebecca and Peter. Marilyn said marketing is a
huge deal, the committee needs to keep track to see if the marketing money spent is recovered in sales.
She also said co-op needs marketing apps.
Chris wants postcards sent to new homeowners in the area. He has the list and can update it. He likes
that it has coupons that the co-op can track and they can buy memberships. A postage meter was
purchased. 1000 postcards can be purchased for $60. Chuck is willing to pay for the postcards. The
coupon could be tracked because anyone who brings postcard back has name and address on it. The
proposed POS can look up membership card. For those already members a coupon for membership
appreciation can be issued. Windyn and John put together the Christmas sale where local vendors cut
margins. Perhaps this can be done again.
HR Committee Report.
The HR committee has been busy with the transition of the old GM to the new one. It is going to meet
next week to discuss new GM contract along with PTO for admin employees. There is also an
unemployment claim from Karen. The committee will speak with Trey about a different point system
for attendance, to help him come up with another system to address the current attendance issues.
Member Forum.
Bob Bailey spoke. He has a lot of interest in making co-op looking better. He also wants to have a
street fair with local artists. He is getting the permit to have the Crestview blocked off from Calumet to
Findley. He is in touch with musicians and artists. He will allocate space for each organization. 10% of
the profits made by the artists will go towards a nonprofit that is featured. Right now that is Girl on the
Run, Ohio Habitat for Humanity and the CRC. It will be June 21, 2014 from 10am-9pm. All fees will be
split among the vendors from boothing fees. There will be Port-O-Pottys, kids activities. The Co-op will
need extra staffing that day. The Co-op cannot provide extra electricity since it cannot handle it. It can
also sell memberships on its iPad. The fair will be advertised on Facebook, by email and the
organizations involved will also advertise.
Calvin mentioned that no one was working produce on week-ends. They lost the interns that used to
help. Chris said special orders are great. Carol asked if Tyrone was allowed in store as she saw him
there, but he has been told not to come into store at all. This needs to be addressed. It was mentioned
that perhaps Blue Creek at North Market can fill in the loss of the meat product that was gotten from
Tyrone.
Brad said that the co-op could have a mural contest among local artists. The designs could be put on the
co-op’s Facebook page and the one with the most likes would get to do the mural.
Marilyn said one of the employees sent her an email-wondering about raising money for fulltime
marketing person. She suggested the National Co-op Credit Union- or other related strong financial
related institutions for a loan. Or perhaps wondering if because were facing a stiff competitor-a grant
from the national Co-Ops, CCMA or CGIN? Fundraising for a salary was not deemed to be appropriate.
Once the marketing committee meets, it can see if we can get return on advertising, and that can pay
for salary.
Old Business.
The POS system was discussed again, once the lease is bought out and the change to KEMBA for the
bank account, the system can be purchased. The Co-op can set up the bank account with KEMBA with
as little as $100.00 There will be some money left in Huntington account of outstanding liabilities. There
will balancing two checking accounts for a little while. There is liability for the uncashed paychecks. The
ones that expired will be replaced with direct deposit. It is free with KEMBA. The board needs to meet
with the new POS company before signing contract to make sure we all are on same page.
Conflict of interest forms need to be signed by board members and employees. If someone has conflictduty to report it. Once signed they will be given to Trey to keep with other board documents.
New Business.
There needs to be a budget proposal for marketing. The Marketing Committee will review and get back
next meeting. In the meantime small amounts can be used for marketing for ad. The discussion is
tabled until next meeting.
Calvin will chair the Bylaws committee and Trey will join it.
The near east side market is not doing so great. They want to order less from UNFI, but the minimal
order is $700/week. They came to see if we can partner and have the load dropped at co-op and
somehow get near east side’s portion to them. We can’t provide transportation to get food to them,
but maybe they can get someone to pick it up. Any agreement has to be done in writing.
The annual calendar that was developed at the Board Development meeting last month was presented.
A motion was presented to approve the calendar. Motion was passed.
A new Website was discussed. At this time Jason is volunteering to do the website. Karen formerly
reported that he did not want any money for it. This should be reviewed to see what we need and how
to make adjustments to it.
Motion was made to adjourn. Motion approved.